LYLE —The Lyle-Pacelli volleyball team is trying to find its footing with its new lineup and that showed up as the team dropped its season opener by scores 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 in Lyle Thursday.

The Athletics (0-1 overall, 0-1 SEC) had their chances in the second and third games, but they weren’t able to close either one out. LP held an 8-4 lead early in the second game and they still led 11-10 before Houston’s Ariel Scanlan put together a 10-point serving run that made it 21-11 Hurricanes.

In the third game, LP trailed 14-8, but it clawed back to take a 20-18 lead. The Hurricanes scored five of the last seven points to close out the match.

“There were first game jitters, but we also had a lot of errors,” LP head coach Tammy Truckenmiller said. “It seemed like we were in the net when we shouldn’t have been in the net and our communication wasn’t the greatest. Those are all things we need to work on tomorrow.”

With a new lineup in tow, the Athletics are still straightening out some things. Lucy Nelson gave LP 10 kills and 12 digs and Olivia Christianson had five kills, 11 digs, four ace serves and four blocks in the loss.

“We’re still trying to figure out a couple of positions. I’m hoping by the time September hits that we’ll be rearing to go,” Truckenmiller said.

LP showed a lot of fight in the last game as it nearly forced a game four.

“They just kept battling,” Truckenmiller said. “They weren’t getting down on themselves and they were picking each other up. That was a positive and we had good leadership.”

LP stats: Faith King, 21 digs, 1 ace serve; Jayden Morrison, 2 blocks; Lucy Nelson, 10 kills, 12 digs, 1 ace serve; Olivia Christianson, 5 kills, 11 digs, 4 ace serves, 4 blocks; Abbey Neve, 4 kills, 5 digs, 1 ace serve, 1 block; Abby Bollingberg, 6 digs, 1 kill, 21 set assists; Vanessa Cotter, 2 kills, 5 digs